Nathan Cleverly goes into Saturday night’s sixth defence of the World Boxing
Organisation light heavyweight title having sparred with British
heavyweights Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury in preparation for the power of
Russian challenger Sergey Kovalev.

Kovalev comes to the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff with a fearsome reputation with his concussive power, and like Cleverly, is unbeaten.

Rarely has a champion like Cleverly been the underdog on home territory, but it represents a dangerous, yet clear opportunity for the Welshman to stamp his mark on the 175lb division.

The fight is being shown live on BoxNation and in the United States, on cable giants HBO on tape-delay, and again, the perfect time for Cleverly to make a name for himself in the United States, where Kovalev has been earmarked as an emerging star by American broadcasters.

Cleverly, and promoter Frank Warren, have to commended for taking this fight. Kovalev, to some extent, has become the main contender in the division, the Russian carrying the ring moniker ‘Krusher’, re-enforced by his knocking out of 18 of 22 opponents inside three rounds.

Cleverly, on an unbeaten 26-fight winning streak with twelve knockouts, insisted that he “wanted to fight the best out there” and victory over Kovalev remains high risk, but also high reward.

“Kovalev has built a reputation from his knockouts, which is impressive, but I'm looking forward to getting in the ring with him to see what he's got,” said Cleverly. “He'll be looking to take my head clean off, but I love feeling on edge like this.”

“The pressure is on me. I'm defending my world title in my home city. I'm going in against a challenger who's unbeaten and who nobody wanted to face. Bring it on. I perform best when under pressure.”

Already this year, 30-year-old Kovalev consigned former WBA light heavyweight title-holder Gabriel Campillo to a third round defeat with ease, and then took out Cornelius White, the highly-ranked IBF contender, knocking him down three times before it was stopped in the third.

Chilling, too, is the fact that Kovalev scored a seventh-round knockout of Roman Simakov, in Russia, in 2011. Simakov died three days later from brain injuries suffered in the bout. Kovalev has avoided talking about that tragedy.

Though Kovalev became the mandatory challenger to Bernard Hopkins with the victory over White, his promoter Kathy Duva chosen to bring the Russian to Wales.

The American/Russian alliance is convinced Cleverly will be drawn into a battle with Kovalev at some point, and that power will win out.

Boxers are often accused of taking the ‘business’ fights, but this is an old-school matchup, with major spoils for the victor. Both men have admitted this is their “toughest career test” and Cleverly will have to put in a special performance if he is to repel Kovalev’s power for twelve rounds.

British middleweight Darren Barker also faces the underdog tag in the early hours of tomorrow morning in Atlantic City when he faces Australian Daniel Geale, the IBF champion, in a second bid to win a world middleweight title.

Nathan Cleverly vs Sergey Kovalev is live on BoxNation on Saturday night.